


There's a ribbon around my neck

by 1PB2PB3PB4



Series: Silence is a valid option [2]
Category: Fables: The Wolf Among Us (Video Game)
Genre: POV Nerissa, Snapshots
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-01
Updated: 2021-01-31
Packaged: 2021-03-18 16:00:56
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,704
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29120859
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/1PB2PB3PB4/pseuds/1PB2PB3PB4
Summary: I'm going to post random bits from Nerissa's POV here as they strike me. Some might be Nerissa's POV of scenes and some might be scenes without Bigby and just Nerissa or other characters.Also spoilers for things implied at the end of the game?I'm not entirely 100% I'm doing this ending tbh only 98% so this might be au, but assume that Bigby never met the real Faith.
Relationships: Nerissa & Bigby Wolf
Series: Silence is a valid option [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2136711
Comments: 6
Kudos: 12





	There's a ribbon around my neck

**Author's Note:**

> I'm going to post random bits from Nerissa's POV here as they strike me. Some might be Nerissa's POV of scenes and some might be scenes without Bigby and just Nerissa or other characters.
> 
> Also spoilers for things implied at the end of the game?  
> I'm not entirely 100% I'm doing this ending tbh only 98% so this might be au, but assume that Bigby never met the real Faith.

Nerissa doesn’t notice the Sheriff straight away, doesn’t notice his footsteps, so used to tuning everything out when dancing. Not because she loves it so much as it requires a _lot_ of concentration and people shout the some fucked up shit and no one wants to be hearing that.

It’s not until Georgie starts speaking to someone else that she looks up and sees him.

Nerissa hadn’t thought two heads would be ignored, but this was Fabletown, so it was entirely possible that they _could_ be. But here’s Bigby Wolf, tense, angry and in the Pudding and Pie for the first time in his life.

Faith and Lily deserved this much- deserved far more than this.

She stops dancing and she doesn’t really want to be here for this, mostly naked in front of the Sheriff and having Georgie scream and shout. Equally she _needs_ to be here, needs to be certain that the Sheriff is here to fix this.

Nerissa doesn’t believe that he’s like they say, but Fabletown is rotten to the core. So she needs to know for certain that Bigby’s not just here to cover it up.

Bigby doesn’t say a word, he stands in front of Georgie and it’s clear that he wants her to go. She _can’t_ not yet, and Georgie would take it out on her later if she left now. Watches him wave her off and try to get her away from Georgie like he’d tried to get “ _Faith_ ” away from the Woodsman.

“What do you want then? Here for a little taste?” Nerissa sees Georgie lean forward into Bigby’s space and wink, “If you want, come back after midnight, maybe I can hook you up.”

She trusts Bigby, but it doesn’t mean she likes being talked about as an object to be _sold_ anymore. Nerissa is a hooker yeah, but she generally chooses her own clients and she deals with _Vivian_ , not Georgie. She shifts awkwardly, very aware that she’s far less clothed than the two men, and it’s worse when she’s not dancing.

“Oh, you want her to go, do you Bigby?” Georgie keeps mocking as the Sheriff waves for her to go again, “Well why don’t you tell her that? We’re not all speechless mangy dogs like you. Tell her how you like it and that’s what she does- that’s what my business does.”

 _Tell him!_ She screams internally, how can it be so _hard_?

She can’t see his face so it’s hard to tell, but the Sheriff’s back tenses up. She feels bad then. Thinks of the man who had waited for Faith to try and say what it was she couldn’t say, listened to the silence with the patience of a man who intimately knew how much it was worth.

He hadn’t said a word then, and he isn’t saying a word now. Nerissa’s heard talk, disparaging- nobody likes the Woodlands lot around here- that something went wrong when he became a Werewolf. That he’s dumb and a mindless beast, struck mute.

Yet he’d picked up on more of what “Faith” had tried to say than anyone has ever even _tried_ to with Nerissa.

It’s when Bigby brings up the glamour tube and photo, gesturing at them pointedly. It’s when Georgie mocks him for being a stereotype- silent and macho and Bigby flinches. Just slightly.

It’s when Bigby’s about to snap and Georgie’s still stringing him along and Bigby doesn’t say a word.

It was when Bigby had said more of worth in his stare outside the Woodsman’s apartment than Georgie has said with words in his life.

_Oh_ , Nerissa thinks. She wonders how long he’s been like this.

“He used to be something,” Georgie tells her, taunting, “Now look at him.” Georgie’s clearly dismissive, thinks of the Sheriff as something under his shoe- why? Because he can’t speak?

Yeah, well Nerissa’s on her way to sinking his organisation without uttering a word as herself _and_ with this damned ribbon around her neck.

She watches him, because they all used to be “something” and those “somethings” have changed, and that’s not always bad. _Look at him_ , Georgie had said.

Nerissa sees the only person who’s ever tried to go toe to toe Georgie, and the only person who’s ever cared about the girls here other than each other and Vivian.

She looks away when the Sheriff’s gaze meets her own, irrationally worried he’ll see something of Faith in her. Even though Faith was stronger and braver and better than she’ll ever be. Wearing her skin had somehow given Nerissa just a fraction of her confidence.

For a man everyone says is a bloodthirsty, violent and mindless beast it sure seems like Georgie’s the one picking this fight. It also seems like Georgie’s spilling a _lot_ \- not much useful- but a lot considering how dismissive he was of Bigby’s tactic of silence.

People really do incriminate themselves if you let them talk.

She still flinches back when Georgie gets all up in Bigby’s face, shouting at him to hit him. She’d seen his eyes that night, going yellow. There’s a loud crash, a bang, and when she opens here eyes she’s grateful to see there’s no blood, just a smashed boombox on the ground.

She’s dismissed pretty quickly after that and she hurries off, eager to put on some clothes, get ready for the night and see what she can do to help the Sheriff in his investigations.

If either of them can talk around the silence that is.

When she hears shouting about the book she opens the door to peep out as silent as she can. And what Bigby can get with his silence is impressive.

She touches her neck, maybe she’s been going about this the wrong way.

Their eyes meet for a moment and then she melts back into the shadows, but she knows he’s going to come and speak to her now.

She stares into the mirror and breathes. For Lily, for Faith.

She applies her lipstick with steady hands, this will be crucial.

She doesn’t know _why_ they haven’t cleared up the motel yet, but she knows they haven’t because the keys been under tight guard. Maybe they were going to and then Nerissa had scuppered that by placing Faith’s severed head on the steps of the Woodlands, Lily’s glamoured head a day later.

After all, there was no hiding it now, Nerissa had made sure of that.

She wonders if perhaps they intend to frame someone- Crane? _Bigby_? Do they want to send him off quickly or do they want to lock him up?

If Bigby is someone who’ll accept easy answers then Nerissa will- she’ll eat her ribbon. Someone who prefers to take the easy way isn’t refraining from violence when it’s in their face and doing a job where everyone hates them and won’t listen.

And yes, Nerissa means listen, because there are plenty of ways to talk.

She can hear the door open and shut, and then there is the clatter of footsteps around the cubby holes.

It’s nearly showtime and she’s a _performer_.

She does her lipstick with steady hands and she breathes. If she can just keep her eyes on her face in the mirror, then she doesn’t have to look him in the eye and wonder if he sees Faith. See if he likes Nerissa any more or less than her, and which one would be worse?

////////////////////////////////

He taps on the wood and she turns her head so slowly.

“I heard you out there,” Nerissa says, instead of the numerous other things she could say, tries to let him take the lead- because Nerissa’s lived her life in the shadows mostly and it’s easier to work out what people want if you let them go first.

“I don’t remember ever seeing you before,” she tells him, partially to see if maybe she’s so transparent and he recognises her as Faith. Even though she’s not looking at him he can feel his eyes boring into her and she can’t shake the fear that he knows. (What she did, and not just the glamour).

It’s also a challenge- the last one- to see if he’s like the others. Nerissa doesn’t want to look at him because she’s pinning all her hopes on this one person caring enough to do something and she doesn’t want to look at him if she was wrong.

He doesn’t say anything- not that she’s expecting him to. She kind of gets it, she thinks. Words are hard and complicated and dangerous- especially the right ones. And sometimes you have a ribbon which prevents you from saying all the things that need to be said.

Everyone has their own ribbon, some are just less powerful or more obvious than others.

Nerissa resumes doing her makeup to keep her composure and watching Bigby walk to stand behind her out of the corners of her eyes.

For Faith and Lily, she thinks. She can do this, she’s been trying to work around the fucking curse for years.

He’s still watching her with that uncanny waiting gaze. He’s going to wait until she says something or kicks him out, Nerissa realises all of a sudden. It’s like she’s Faith again, when she’d started to say something and then he’d stood and waited.

She can imagine someone who’s so careful with his words would be good at listening to others. She doesn’t like being assessed like this though, feeling like the layers are being pulled back and she’s scared Bigby’s going to see the bravery she’s stolen from Faith beneath.

“You’re trying to place me.” She sees Bigby smile a little in the mirror, give a small nod. It’s weird to think that she could block him out so easily, just shut her eyes. It makes her feel a bit better.

“They _used_ to call me the Little Mermaid,” she grins a smile she doesn’t feel and thinks about days when she could move around without the pain of stabbing glass, the water all around her. Before charming men swept her off her feet and she swallowed up all the _bullshit_.

“Does that help?” she asks when Bigby doesn’t react, sees him shake his head a little and lean back with his arms folded. She sighs.

“My name is Nerissa,” she tells him, then focuses all of her attention back on her lipstick so she can’t see his face. She doesn’t like to give her name as a rule, hadn’t told him when she was Faith, and she certainly tries to keep her name out of client’s mouths.

Giving people her name makes Nerissa feel uncomfortably seen in a way she doesn’t much like.

Bigby still hasn’t said a word, she wonders why. If he can’t or if he won’t. It doesn’t really matter in the end- he wants to help, it’s written all over him. It’s enough.

“I suppose you’ve got some questions,” She says slowly at last, putting her lipstick down and focusing all of her attention on his face reflected back in the mirror. “But I don’t think I have the answers. You’ll have to find those some _other_ way.”

Nerissa drums her fingers on the tabletop, tries to work out how to say this without making it obvious, without dredging something up that it’s so obvious the Sheriff doesn’t want people to know- even though if anyone _looked_ they’d probably work it out. But that’s Fabletown, people may look but they never _see_.

“But you’re good at asking questions in other ways, aren’t you? So just apply it to getting answers,” She asks pointedly with a bitter smile, she’d seen him play Georgie like a drum. He’d gotten a lot out of Faith with just some stares when she’d still thought he just didn’t _want_ to speak.

She sees him squint at her in confusion but it doesn’t seem like he’s demanding for her to elaborate.

With hands that don’t shake because people don’t want the stripper on the pole to be nervous, she lightly traces the ribbon around her neck. (What if she pulled it? Would that make it clear enough what happened? She doesn’t _want_ to though.)

“Do you like my ribbon?”

He shakes his head short and sharp- it’s not like Bigby’s confused reaction to Faith, clearly unsure what to say, and the way his eyes sharpen on it Nerissa wonders if Bigby’s starting to piece it together. She hopes so.

////////////////////////////////////////

Georgie glowers at her, full of suspicion and something else as she explains that she’s made an _appointment_ with Bigby. She hands over what ought to be Georgie’s percentage of the cut and there’s nothing that he _should_ be able to complain about, but she can tell he’s not happy.

For all that Georgie had been needling at Bigby earlier it’s clear he’s not entirely convinced that the Sheriff is as desperate for a shag as he’d implied.

“Money’s been handed over,” She tells Georgie, because she has to speak about this in some stupid roundabout way. “And money’s money.”

“The Big Bad Wolf asked to shag _you_?” Georgie asks his voice very quiet- because he’s not actually a stupid man and that’s what makes him dangerous.

“These lips are sealed,” she parrots back. It’s strange _choosing_ to say that.

“Hah, our respectable Sheriff meets someone for the first time and the first words out of his mouth are about sex,” Georgie shakes his heard and glares at where Nerissa suspects Bigby’s shadow lurks. “He really is a fucking animal.”

Then he’s dismissing her before Nerissa can feel bad about what she’s done for Bigby’s character.

When she steps back into the room with him he reaches for her hand without looking at her. Bigby’s head is firmly turned towards Georgie but when he tries to move she stays still. She trusts him, she doesn’t _think_ he’s misunderstood this all- but what if he _has_?

What if-

He turns back to her and lets her read his face. She runs her eyes over it. He looks sad, but open and like he wants to help. It’s the same way he’d looked at Faith, when he knew nothing about her, and no one had died. And he still wanted to help.

If she walks out of here holding his hand it will help to sell this to Georgie- and help to damn Bigby further in his eyes. She waits just a moment longer, watching him. When he starts moving again she lets herself be gently pulled along.

His hand is very warm in her own. Softer than she thought it would be too, especially after seeing these fists buried in the Woodsman’s face.

He dangles the key in front of her, 204 swings accusatorily in front of her face.

They all have their own rooms, she doesn’t say, in case Georgie’s listening or something. Because it’s an oddly personal detail she doesn’t want to say, that she does this so often she essentially has a room booked at the Open Arms. She’s not ashamed but she doesn’t want to know if Bigby thinks she should be.

“I’m sure you’ll think of something,” she laughs slightly instead, because it’s easier.

Once they’re outside he drops her hand, and she steps away from him slightly. She nods at him and walks off, maybe she’ll try and find some all-night café and have some coffee before the Club opens. Georgie won’t be expecting her back for some time and she doesn’t want to listen to his mocking. Her and the Sheriff.

She can leave this in Bigby’s hands. She can trust him. She _can_.

He’s not like they say he is at all. He’s quiet- silent- but he’s not dumb and he’s not bad. Nerissa thinks he might know what it’s like to be trapped too. Just differently.

Maybe if all goes well, she’ll be able to help him a little too.

If he doesn’t despise her for not warning him about what he’s going to find in that room. But somehow, Nerissa thinks Bigby of all people, will understand.

For now, coffee. Later, work. And maybe later still, something that Crane can’t wriggle out of anymore.


End file.
